Bloodaxe

10 hours ago, eddjbishop said:

Can veranda partitions be removed  between cabins..???

Not usually allowed for safety reasons has they are glass, we once found ours shattered on embarking, they did replace it has soon has I reported it.

They can sometimes be a noise problem, have had to pack the hinges to stop rattles.

14 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

One of my bowling friends who used to work in our Tesco Extra told me that they had closed the staffed tills over night as a cost cutting exercise.  I now go to the slightly smaller but more convenient one near to the school where I drop the children off.

Sounds like Tesco could be shooting themselves in the foot in the run up to the festive season.  

 

It's getting common to only have manned tills at busy times, I was in our local Aldi mid morning on a weekday only self service was  open, told they will only open others If it got busy.

On 11/18/2023 at 11:43 AM, Fionboard said:

Malaga

Some years ago we joined a cruise in Malaga in early December.

We spent a day there before the cruise and that night was the switch on of the Christmas lights.

A lovely evening with the streets full of locals and lots of entertainment.

17 minutes ago, purplesea said:

It is times like this that I sometimes regret moving to the far end of Cornwall, as it takes us a day to get anywhere. Before we moved down we were only half an hours drive from Luton Airport. A taxi is a very expensive option for just 2.

One thing less to worry about with Saga, that and the included insurance is what sold me, I know you pay for it in the price but much less hassle.

We sailed with captain Jason several times on Azamara and had a nice chat with him on our September Saga cruise.

Although we had not seen him for over 10 years he remembered us, lovely man.

19 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

Very interesting  speciality restaurants  opening for lunch

On our September cruise the speciality restaurants opened for walk ins on sea days. It was a lunch menu.

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

I suspect that over a certain distance they will offer the "car to local airport - flight to London - car to port" option instead. I doubt if they would offer a transfer which necessitated changing drivers on the way.

 

It happened to us on a Titan holiday, we changed driver and Car at a service area part way down the M1, on the way to Gatwick from Yorkshire.

It almost caused us to miss our flight has the second driver was late.

1 hour ago, Wacktle said:

I was just going to say the same. Maybe we were on the same cruise (11 Sept, 5 nights). 

Correct cruise, it was 6 nights.

On our recent cruise we were advised to take copies of our passports and not the originals when going ashore.

On the night before we arrived in France copies of our passports were left in our cabin.

40 minutes ago, Denarius said:

This thread appears to have been hijacked by coffee afficinados. May I respectfully suggest that the quality of coffee is not a major factor for most people in deciding which cruise line to sail with.

Nobody suggested that it was, the original posted was asking for comparisons with other lines and many things have been mentioned.

3 hours ago, Kohima said:

Oceania definitely has the edge over Saga with its barista style coffee bar serving an excellent range of coffees.

Has does Azamara, at Saga prices it is a shame that Barista Coffee is not available on the ships.

However Sagas included alcoholic drinks are much better than Azamaras swings and roundabouts I guess.

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

I know that, but I don’t understand your comment on the standard cabins on Saga not having bean machines?

Just meaning that they just have a kettle with tea bags and instant coffee.

We did enjoy being able to make our morning tea with real milk from the fridge.

2 hours ago, JMMKUK said:

I mean the ones in the Library & the Grill. Coffee served in Britannia lounge & the Living Room also comes from bean machines.

 

The machines in the suites are pod not bean

I did not rate the coffee has good anywhere on the ship, obviously just my opinion.

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

I don’t remember Azamara having bean machines in their standard cabins either nor in their club continent suites.

They do not but they do have a proper cafe that serves good coffee and tea all day long.

7 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

There are tables for two, but, if you like dining as a couple, be warned some of the tables, in both dining room and buffet are VERY close together.  When I say close together, I mean a couple of inches apart. They place two tables for two so close together, it's akin to being on a 4 seater table.

 

We did our first  Saga cruise in August. We enjoyed the cruise and liked most things that Saga had to offer, but have to admit, the way the dining tables are set up did place a slight cloud on the cruise for us. We are both introverts, and don't really enjoy making small talk with other people.  But the tables I described were so close together, when we were assigned to one of those tables it would have been plain odd not to have spoken to our neighbours. But it meant that we didn't enjoy the experience quite so much.

 

We had already booked another cruise on SOA for next year, so we will be attempting to make it better for  ourselves. I've contacted Saga, and have requested a fixed table for dinner, so we can (hopefully) secure a table for two in a position to our liking.  We generally go to the buffet for breakfast and lunch, and will go early before it gets busy, and will be a lot more proactive in our table choice when being led to our table, so that we can get one to our liking. Or, as suggested by a Saga regular on this board, simply go in the back doors and pick our own table. 

 

 

We had a regular table for 2 which we had requested on with our booking, it was fine and not that close.

The closest was in the speciality restaurant which did surprise us.

We did enjoy the cruise and will probably book again soon.

2 minutes ago, JMMKUK said:

The coffee they pour in the restaurants is awful but the coffee from the bean to cup machines is pretty good.

But the bean machines are not in the standard cabins unfortunately.

Saga compares very well with Azamara who we have sailed with many times, the standard cabins are nicer than Azamaras basic balconies.

The bathrooms are much better without shower curtains, food very similar on both.

We did miss the international feel of Azamara and their good

Coffee, Saga is very British and the coffee is poor.

Azamara is not classed has a luxury line and does not claim to be one, it is a step up from the mainstream ones.

17 hours ago, Kinniegirl said:

I was just wondering if it was crack of dawn or reasonable.

 

what times are other people picked up approximately?

Just back from our cruise, live near York, pick up time 08.30/ 9.00.

Shared Car 5 hours to Dover, Great service

9 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Kresimir Korona has been with Azamara for ages. He was previously Staff Captain and was promoted. I'm surprised you have never come across him. He's a super guy. 

 

Phil 

Pretty sure I must have, I would remember if I met him, just not great with names these days.

11 hours ago, silkismom said:

WOW, all new to me.

Tomasz and Mario are long time with Azamara, the others are new to me. 

12 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I can understand that - it's very individual 

Thank you for a very informative review, I already knew about the lack of decent coffee.

At Sags prices that is disappointing, you would expect a proper barrister coffee shop somewhere in the ship.

The close tables will not bother us has we like to chat and meet people, we join the ship next month.

1 hour ago, sgmn said:

I don't think so, he was in 148 squadron (now disbanded). He would of been 18 when he joined and trained as a flight engineer.  (He had been working with cars since 14).

He wouldn't speak much about his war service, but Gary has since found out a lot through the war records at Kew and his log book and also this book(below) details all the missions.  So mostly doing special ops dropping tons of supplies and agents to the resistance fighters behind enemy lines from Brindisi and North Africa. Most of the crews were Canadian 

If you click on the link and then on 'more' in the precis of the book it gives a summary of their missions 

 

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Trusty_to_the_End.html?id=xI9DswEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

 

You live in a beautiful part of our country, I definitely want to spend more time doing land trips in the UK.  There's so many parts I haven't visited 

We have a book called Based at Burn, not sure if it is still in print or on the net,it was a special order at the reunion written by one the veterans.

10 hours ago, sgmn said:

We had a lovely couple of days in York and the Aviation Museum last week. We had one day in York and definitely want to go back.  We climbed up the very narrow twisty staircase to the top of the Minster tower 278 steps I think.

The next day we went to the Aviation Museum. Gary was in his element. He paid for a one to one with a Halifax expert (his father flew on them in WW2) and they chatted for three hours. 

 

We met on an Aviation course in Surrey 37 years ago and the very same Dove that they had at the college is now in the Yorkshire Museum 

 

Other coincidences from our lives there too. A Hunter, the type of which my dad worked on in the RAF and the Gate Guardian on the Canadian Base in Baden Germany where Gary lived as a teenager

 

The Minster 

 

 

 

the Canadian Gate Guardian 

The Halifax 

The Dove 

 

Was Gary's father based in Yorkshire during the war?, we live in the edge of a wartime airfield just South of Selby, about 20 miles from the air museum.

The main aircraft that flew from here were Halifaxs, what a pity that the Halifax at Elvington is not airworthy.

Our airfield at Burn still has quite a few runways usable and the local gliding club use them.

A few years ago the R A F used it for training landings and take off from remote locations.

A wartime reunion was held in the 1998 and people came from as far away has Canada and Australia to attend, local villagers were welcome and it was great to talk with the veterans.

The flypast was done by the Lancaster has obviously no Halifax was available.

A memorial book to 578 squadron is kept in Selby Abbey South of York.

3 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

That’s very true!
 

We boarded on Friday, our first Saga cruise, so early days for us. For anyone who is used to P&O there are similarities, but there are differences too. 
 

At this point, I wouldn’t like to say that I prefer Saga, but I’ll see how I feel this time next week 

Like you this will our first cruise for 4 years and our first with Saga, most of our previous cruises have been with Azamara and the smaller Celebrity ships.

Not like!y to cruise on any of the new mega ships with any line, be interested to hear your thoughts on Saga after your cruise.

Ours is not quite the same has yours, round trip Dover calling in Southern Ireland, the Scillys and Northern France.

Just a short one to test the water with Saga.

58 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

If she gets a chance, I recommend the Tresco Abbey Gardens, which is where we are today, on Spirit of Adventure 

 

It looks as if you are in the Scilly Isles, the Op was referring to Sicily, Italy.

We are on the same cruise as you next month.how is it?